


The Library

by Too_Fargone



Category: Fargo (2014)
Genre: AU, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Library AU, M/M, idk - Freeform, maybe multichap, useless numbers, wrench is so done w/ ur shit numbers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2014-09-20
Packaged: 2018-02-18 03:04:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2332922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Too_Fargone/pseuds/Too_Fargone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wrench/Numbers AU.<br/>Numbers finds himself forced into working at the local library. It's unbearably boring, so he just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. But that one guy...the one with that weird fringed jacket, doesn't seem to want to leave Numbers alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Library

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to start a library-AU for this pairing, I've got no idea what's going to happen. Hola, let's go~  
> I actually wrote this ages ago and am only uploading it now because I am very lazy.
> 
> Also sorry I haven't uploaded in ages, I went back to fanfic (where I hadn't updated in three and a half years) and did some stuff there.

Community service; four weeks of it, plus a night in a cell, and a hefty fine. He was starting to regret starting that fight in the bar, but watching those two idiots beat the shit out of each other had been pretty funny, only problem was that once the cops had got word that the fight had been started by him...he'd been hit with a punishment too. Having not actually thrown any punches had saved him a lawsuit, but the judge had been firm that he was to do community service for a few weeks. It was supposed to 'help him become a more respectful citizen', he'd sniggered at that later on.   
He wasn't sniggering now, though. He was standing behind the desk of a library, as a librarian explained to him about how to use the scanner, “And if they've got a fine to pay, you press this button before you take their money, understand?”  
“Sure, got it,” He nodded, it was just easier to behave in these situations, plus it wasn't this old lady's fault that he had been forced to volunteer here.  
“You'll be fine, then?” She asked, and he appreciated the kind smile behind her glasses.  
“Yep, thank you,” He replied and breathed a sigh of relief as she left, probably to sort books and papers. He wasn't sure.  
It was his first day at the library, so from his spot behind the desk he took a look around. It was pretty stereotypical for a library really, blue carpeted floor stretched out, decorated with long rows of book shelves. There was an area of tables and chairs, where posters on the walls advertised local reading clubs or new books that were soon to be released. He looked back to the book shelves, at the signs on them: Children's, Romance, Historical, Comedy, it went on. He sighed tapping his fingers on the large desk before him. Surely they could have supplied him with a chair?   
There were a few people in the library, but he doubted if it ever got very busy. It was just a couple of kids at the table, looked like they were doing home work, an old man down in the history section and a couple of women floating around the romance shelves.   
He scratched his beard in thought, a habit of his which made the beard well worth having, and wondered if it was always going to be like this.  
The first person he served was a woman paying eight dollars in fines, and borrowing out six books. It was a complete success. This was almost too easy.  
It wasn't long before he grew bored. It wasn't the work that made this job count toward community service...it was the lack of it. It was so boring for a few minutes he pondered over whether he should have just done a few weeks in prison instead.   
After midday, a few more people started coming in. He watched them all walk through the doors and go to look at the books. A woman with blonde hair and a blue coat, a man with two young children who were talking about how they wanted to show him something, a big tall guy wearing what had to be the worst jacket in the entire world (fringed and tan), and an old woman clutching a cloth book bag.  
He rolled his eyes, then turned his attention to a woman in front of the counter, who wanted to renew her card.  
“I'll have to get someone,” He explained. Card renewing was not something he'd been spoken to about. He gave a quick smile and turned around. He opened the door behind him and went into the room filled with files and printers and stacks of papers, “Claire?” He asked, and the old woman poked her head up and out of a folder.  
“What is it?”  
“There's a woman at the counter, she wants a new card...” He was lost. Completely lost.  
Claire straightened her hair bun and nodded, “I'll take care of it, you go see if anyone needs help finding anything.”  
“Right,” He nodded, but had no idea how he was supposed to be able to find anything either. He walked out and took a look around the shelves, he wasn't sure what a person looking for a book exactly looked like. Luckily someone asked him for help, before he had to think too much. Obviously they'd noticed the lanyard around his neck, and the card that read 'VOLUNTEER' on the end of it.  
It was the man with the kids, “Could you give us a hand? My kids have been telling me about this book they found...but they can't find it anywhere.”  
“Sure,” He nodded and smiled at the two dark haired children who looked up hopefully with big green eyes, “Do they know the writer's name?” The kids were both around seven...so there was a chance they might have remembered it.  
“Penelope!” The girl yelled up at him.  
No luck, he needed a surname, “Do you know what it was about?”  
“An alligator!” No help. He looked at the daunting section of children's books and had a sneaking suspicion there were quite a few alligator books. Then he remembered the computer directory.   
“I'll look it up,” he told the father before getting back behind the desk to type 'Penelope, alligator/children's' into the search like he'd been shown. It worked, showing him the author's name and the situation of the book. He breathed a sigh of relief before walking out again and showing the father and his kids where the book was.   
Too easy.   
He jumped as he turned around, in front of him was the tall guy from earlier, the one with the awful jacket. He looked up, “Can I help?” The guy didn't reply, just looked at him like he was stupid and passed him a bit of paper.   
'New here?' it read.  
He nodded, “Yeah, actually.”  
The guy didn't respond, “Yeah I am,” He repeated, but the guy just frowned at him, then shook his head, tapped his ears and then tapped the note. He went to repeat himself again when it clicked. Oh. Deaf. He couldn't hear.  
The guy passed him a pencil and he scrawled on the paper, 'Yes I'm new.'  
The deaf one wrote back, 'It shows. You've got no clue what you're doing.'  
'And you can tell?' He wrote, trying to ignore the insult.  
Deaf guy nodded, then wrote, 'Got a name?'  
He frowned at the other man for a second before realising that he hadn't been given a name badge. He nodded and wrote his name on the paper. The deaf guy looked at it for a few seconds, looked at him, back at the name and shook his head, frowning, 'Awful' was all he wrote in reply.  
'Thanks' he rolled his eyes.   
His attention was drawn away from the moderately rude deaf man, and to Claire who was carting a pile of books in his direction, she put them down on one of the tables and then walked back to him, brushing down her yellow sweater and catching her breath, “I've put a notebook over there for you. I need you to write down those book titles, and work out what number needs to go on their spine. I've given you some sheets of paper with the Dewey Decimal system on it, as well,” She smiled at him.  
“Oh. Uh. Sure, I can do that,” He nodded and went to sit down at the tower of unmarked books. He had no idea what he was doing. The deaf guy followed, like he'd been invited, and watched as he sat down and looked at the daunting pile of books. He grabbed the pen and wrote down title, then looked through the list of numbers he'd been given, trying to find the right one. He looked through the pages before hitting his hand on the desk.  
He had no clue what any of these numbers meant. There was too many of them for one thing.  
'What is it?' the deaf guy wrote on his notebook.  
'I'm meant to match the book genre with a code or something. I'm not sure. There's so many numbers'  
'Numbers' The deaf guy wrote back.  
'Yeah'  
'It's perfect'  
He frowned at the taller man beside him. What the heck was he talking about? 'What?' He scrawled down.  
'It's a way better name for you' The deaf one nodded, 'Mr Numbers.'  
'I don't even like numbers much'  
'Too bad. It suits you, you look like a Mr Numbers'  
Numbers, as he was now called, frowned at the man beside him. How the heck did anyone 'look like a Mr Numbers'? He wondered silently, but the man only gave him a grin.  
'And you visit the library a lot, right?'  
The guy nodded his head.   
Numbers looked at him, narrowing his eyes...what a weirdo. He decided he didn't mind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!   
>  This is a pretty rare event, usually the only multi-chapter writing I do is for original work.  
> So yeah, please leave your thoughts, and kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
